Systems that automatically distribute customer contacts or calls (generically referred to as “ACD”) are often employed in telemarketing environments in which agents stationed at agent telephone sets answer many different types of telephone calls and other types of customer contacts (e.g., VoIP, emails, facsimile, chat room dialog, instant messages, other Internet contacts, etc.) from customers during a work day. As referred to herein, an ACD may be referred to as an automatic call distributor or an automatic contact distributor because the ACD handles a variety of communication media. In other words, the ACD handles many forms of communication, not just telephone calls in which a potential customer speaks with an agent. The term “ACD” may apply to any type of transaction processing system, and need not apply only to dedicated telemarketing systems or automatic call distributors. In some known ACD's, the agent may receive certain information about the type of customer call (i.e. contact) on a visual display at the agent set when a call or contact is distributed to the agent. An ACD is any such system which performs these functions and, for example, may employ a wide variety of architectures including integrated centralized systems, distributed systems, systems using one or more personal computers or servers, etc.
In some embodiments, ACD's may be used to support a number of different vendors in their telemarketing effort, and in such marketing environments, the agent is typically in communication with the customer or potential customer with respect to or on behalf of a particular vendor. The next contact that the agent processes may be on behalf of the same vendor or on behalf of a different vendor. In another embodiment, ACD's may be used exclusively by or on behalf of a single vendor such that all of the contacts processed by the agent involve one particular vendor.
Often, a customer call is distributed to an agent that involves interactive voice dialog. This means a normal two-way verbal exchange. An ACD, however, may also distribute a non-voice dialog contact or call to the agent. This does not involve direct two-way speech between the agent and the customer or caller. Non-voice dialog communication may be, for example, emails, facsimile, chat room dialog, instant messaging, Internet, etc. and the like. This is becoming more common as Internet traffic and electronic sales transactions increase. Handling of the non-voice dialog contact may require a specialized device or subcomponent of the ACD. In this situation, the agent may typically view text on a display screen that the caller typed in or transmitted. In response, the agent may provide information to the contact or request information from the caller, via the keyboard or other input device. Essentially, the dialog between the agent and the caller occurs on a display screen. Further, the agent may handle multiple calls. For example, the agent may typically handle two to five (or more) simultaneous non-voice dialog communications or transactions, which may be presented as two to five separate dialog windows on the display screen, which windows may, for example, be tiled or layered. Of course, the number of simultaneous transactions may vary significantly.
Typically, if a voice dialog or voice mode communication is received by the ACD system and routed to the agent, the agent responds verbally and engages in a voice dialog with the caller. Similarly, if a text-base message, such as email or chat, is received by the agent, the agent may typically respond using the same medium, for example, the agent may type his or her response and transmit the message to the caller. Regardless of the medium, the incoming call usually deals with a specific area, such as customer service, customer complaint, sales, and the like.
In known transaction processing systems, data provided by the caller may not be transmitted to the agent station to whom the caller is routed. Such information is often recollected by the agent, which is inefficient. Further, known transaction processing systems usually route a call to a first available agent. However, it would be advantageous if the call were routed to a preferred agent based upon the information provided by the caller or based upon other information obtained about the caller.
Additionally, in known transaction processing systems, the agent must invoke or “maximize” the appropriate application software or application screen to handle the customer's needs. This is somewhat time consuming and inefficient, and may cause unnecessary delays, which may lead to customer dissatisfaction. It would be advantageous if an appropriate software application was automatically invoked or “maximized” upon receipt of pertinent caller information so that the application and the corresponding data are available to the agent substantially simultaneous with the agent receiving the call.